What's that smell?

My brother, lucasjackson7, made a comment on my blog recently in response to my beginning the school year. It brought to mind some harsh realities that I deal with everyday.

Body Odor!!! Teaching at an all-boys high school prepatory in hot muggy New Orleans is tough, not only in the academics department but also in the physical odor department. Boys are just as self-relaint on image as girls. Which means that when it comes to physical education the boys are really worried about their self-image amongst the other boys.

This makes for a very unpleasant smell when the boys come into your classroom right after p.e. class. No one has taken a shower, much less changed their clothing underneath the uniform. I was talking to one of the p.e. coaches the other day about the boys and how it is so uncool to shower after p.e. class. Not one of the students takes a shower after running around outside in the nice warm Louisiana sun. The new and latest version of a cleaning routine is to bombard oneself with tons of deoderant.

I remember the awkward moments that I went through on my first shower experience in high school. It was probably the fastest shower in human record. I don't even remember the water hitting me. Neither did my eyes stray from my own body. To this day, I can remember all of us trudging ungratefully into the showers, cursing under our breathes with cruelty the unwillingness to shower as the coach sat in his warden like stance waiting for each of us to exit wet with towels draped around our waists. The first year was so unflattering as we crowded the shower stalls with our skinny boney bodies intermingling with the older boys more developed hairy bodies. It was like a cast of extras from the movie Teen Wolf.

Although, as the years went by it became easier, and a more willingful task to jump into the showers after class. My senior year, I can recall our coach harassing us about taking showers. Throwing down the proverbail gaunlet of the unforgettable "F" in p.e. if you don't shower. Eveyone one of tooks showers and never regretted the experience. Looking back on it I am grateful for that experience, because it made me more self-assured in my own body. Today most people frown when I tell them this story claiming that it was wrong to force us to shower after class. The connotations can be seen as it being a gay experience. Boys showering with other boys. Obviously it didn't affect my father, or my grandfather too much to shower with others. I don't think it's as bad as everyone makes it out to be, plus it really brought about the importance of hygiene at an early age. Today, hygiene is spraying oneself with AXE until everyone in the room turns blue for the oxidants contaminating the air like a Chernoble experiment. As our modern world changes everyday I question some of the importance we place on hygiene and self-image. This is something that most see as trivial, but as a teacher I have to deal with it on an everyday basis.